PREVENTING SUDDEN-DEATH AFTER A MYOCARDIA L-INFARCTION - SHOULD THE MADIT STRATEGY BE GENERALLY USED - ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR

The conventional antiarrhythmic treatment of ventricular arrhythmias c ausing sudden death is the implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Any drug, intervention or device designed to prevent sudden death should be compared in the future in a prospective and randomized way with the implantable cardioverter defibrillator as the standard treatment. The MADIT strategy should be considered as the conventional treatment of the patients with sustained ventricular arrhythmias and of the patient s with nonsustained ventricular arrhythmias and depressed left ventric ular ejection fraction.